Dr3Despair rewrite
by mr. pleb
Summary: my own take on what dr3/ despair could have been if not for the whole "mindhacc" thing we all know and love. will be 12 parts total
1. Chapter 1

Part 1

April

The first day of the school year at Hope's Peak Academy started off better than it had in years, with the April sun shining warmly and not a cloud to be seen in the sky. The older students were smiling and happily greeting their friends while the new students cautiously took their first steps into the academy with a look of awe on their faces. A good first impression can fool even the most cautious of people, and the students of the seventy seventh class imagined that this year would be even better than the last. Sadly, their hopes would be unfulfilled.

Junko Enoshima, Ultimate Fashionista, Analyst and, most importantly, the soon to be ultimate Despair. How someone with so many talents as varying and dubious as these managed to get past the initial screening process of Hope's Peak Academy is a mystery to everyone, and is likely to remain one forever, had just entered the main hall of the academy for the first time. Many only dream of doing what she as just done, but for her, it was a Monday. Not just any Monday, however, this day was the start of a dream she had since she was a child.

A dream where the entire world would feel the cold embrace of despair, just like her.

At any ordinary school, the mere sight of Junko Enoshima would attract all eyes in the room. Hope's Peak was not an ordinary school. People with talents from all over came here to learn and specialize their superhuman skills to bring hope to the world, many of which can only be described as "eccentric".

For the time being, Junko couldn't care less of what people thought of her. The only thing that mattered to her at this point was her plan. Unfortunately, the plan needed more than just herself and her sister, Mukuro Ikusaba. Junko needed enough people for a small army, or at the very least, to be able to function like a small army. What was fortunate was that Hope's Peak was full of exceptional people, maybe not enough for her army, but definitely better than anywhere else.

Which brought her to where she stands now, with her sister along side her, in the middle of the entrance hall of the academy, eyes peeled for anyone with potential. Finally, she spots not one, but two people that look easy to manipulate: a bully and her victim. The bully in question was a small girl, child like really, clearly tormenting a girl with bandages and a medical apron as she begged for forgiveness.

A slight grin formed on Junko's face. The victim would be easy, she concluded. But the bully had potential as well, she just needed to wring out all she needed from the victim before moving onto the bigger fish. All she needed to do was strike while the iron was hot.

"Mukuro, give me your knife."

Mukuro, blinked once in confusion, then removed a knife that was hidden in her skirt and handed it to her sister.

If she had not been as devoted to Junko as she was, Mukuro may have questioned her sisters logic. But after many years of not being able to see her, couple with a recent reunion, all Mukuro wanted was her sister to be happy. Not matter what it was, she would follow her sister's wishes.

Meanwhile, Junko had slashed open the palm of her left hand and slipped the knife into her uniform before running over the crying girl.

"Does anyone have a bandage? I'm bleeding!"

Mukuro raised her eyebrow. Usually her sister was a far better actor than this, not that it mattered this time as the medical girl immediately rushed over to Junko and began tending to her wound. In the span of about half a minute, it seemed that the girl had completely treated Junko's hand.

"Thanks, you're the best!" Junko said smiling, "I don't know what i would have done if you weren't here!"

The other girl blushed, "W-well I-I'm a n-nurse so-"

Junko cut her off with a bear hug. "You're so cute! What's your name? I'm Junko Enoshima."

"I-Im Mikan Tsumiki," said the now flustered girl.

"Really? Well it's a good thing i found you then! You saved my life!"

Mukuro sighed, it was a little painful for her to see her talented sister put on a show this corny, but she seemed to be pushing all the right buttons with Mikan. After a moment Junko waved Mikan farewell and walked back over to Mukuro. By the time she had gotten to her, Junko's face had twisted from a serene smile into a spine chilling grin.

"She's perfect."

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Chiaki Nanami loved video games. The earliest memory she has is when she beat Metropolis Android in record time. From that point on her life was all about video games, which eventually led to her being scouted as the Ultimate Gamer and admitted into Hope's Peak Academy.

Chiaki didn't really care about that, though. To her, Hope's Peak was just like her last school, only her classmates were a lot more lively. Usually it took most of her energy to avoid getting hit with various objects ranging from cooking utensils to parts of the room being thrown around.

Despite all that happening on a daily basis, as she sat in class she did what she always did: she played video games on her gamegirl. For a brief moment she thought if she was supposed to do her morning duties in the class. Late in the previous year the teacher had decided to make her the class representative. Something about helping her "break out of her shell". She didn't really understand what her teacher was talking about. First off, it was a backpack. Second, it wasn't that she didn't want to talk with her classmates, it was that she didn't really know what to talk about.

She sighed quietly. She did want to get to know her classmates better, she really did, but at this point it looked impossible. Mahiru, Ibuki, Hiyoko, Mikan and another girl from a different class were all good friends and probably didn't need someone else in their quintet of sorts, Akane and Nekomaru had their own coach/ apprentice thing going on, Gundam and Sonia had their little evil overlords game, Kazuichi, Teruteru and Ryota got along fairly well, Fuyuhiko and Peko were pretty close despite how different they were, and Nagito was… Nagito was just kind of around most of the time.

If she was put on the spot with the question "Who are your friends?", she would only truthfully be able to respond with "Hajime Hinata".

Hajime Hinata. A rather strange friendship, what with him being in the reserve course and being somewhat of a downer at times. Chiaki did enjoy his company, though. Often the two of them spoke about games they both liked, games they should play together, games they were looking forward to…

Was it really just games they talked about? Chiaki frowned, she was sure Hajime told her about things in his life before. ' _I know he really admires Hope's Peak_ ', she thought. But that couldn't be the only thing about him. She knew he was strong, as from the few times he stopped her from falling when he just grabbed her back upright. He was smart enough to figure out some of the more challenging puzzle games they played, so he has decent problem solving logic.

As Chiaki continued to mull over her and Hajime's friendship, she was interrupted by the teacher.

"Chiaki, please try to pay attention."

Chiaki jumped slightly as she was removed from her thoughts. She looked around and saw the rest of the class staring at her.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

The teacher nodded, at least it was something. "Is something bothering you?" they asked.

Chiaki shook her head, "No, i'm fine."

The teacher nodded again, then resumed the lesson.

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As the first day back at Hope's Peak Academy drew to a close, Hajime Hinata found himself sitting in his usual spot at the end of the day: the bench by the fountain in the courtyard between the main building and the reserve course building.

Normally he sat here waiting for Chiaki to arrive, or vice versa, but today, he came here to think about an offer he was given by a high ranking member of the Hope's Peak staff and former headmaster, Kazuo Tengan. A life changing offer.

According to the former headmaster, if he accepted to participate in something called the "Kamukura Project" he would be allowed to join the main course. Hajime had almost accepted to the offer right then and there, but was stopped by Tengan. He was warned that the resulting project will have "consequences". Although the exact details of said consequences were left vague, Tengan did say he may be separated from those he cares about. He also told Hajime that he has until the end of June to make his decision.

It had been his dream since he was a child to be enrolled by Hope's Peak, although his parent had some part to play in that as well, so this offer weighed heavily on his mind. Accept the offer and face the consequences? Or refuse and remain in the reserve course and with those he cares about?

Hajime continued to wrack his brain until he felt somebody poking his cheek.

"Huh?"

Hajime turned to his left and saw Chiaki sitting uncomfortably close, staring directly into his eyes.

Hajime returned the stare and blinked. "Chiaki?"

Chiaki continued her stare for another half second, then pulled back into a more traditional sitting position.

"You were staring into space for a really long time," she told him, "What were you thinking about?"

Hajime let out a small laugh, "It's," he paused, ' _Should i ask what she thinks about it?_ ' he thought, ' _No, she has enough to deal with right now in the main course_.'

"It's nothing."

Chiaki stared at him again, then nodded before turning away into her backpack and handing him her spare gamegirl.

"So, what game do you want to play today?"

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It was a rare day when Mikan Tsumiki looked genuinely happy just on her own. It had been three weeks since she had met her new friend who was just a year younger than she was, Junko Enoshima.

Since she had met her, Junko had been encouraging her to be more assertive with people. This was a huge task for Mikan to overcome, and she wasn't certain that she would be able to do it.

But at the same time, Mikan knew that Junko believed in her, and that belief alone would make her try her hardest to overcome her submissiveness. Maybe one day she will finally be able to stand up to Hiyoko and tell her to stop bullying her.

The thought of that made her smile. When the two of them finally become real friends, maybe they can look back at this and laugh. That smile continued until she arrived at her after school destination: the front entrance gates of Hope's Peak where her friends Mahiru, Ibuki, Hiyoko and Sato were waiting.

"It's about time you arrived, Pig Barf."

And there went her smile, "I'm sorry!" she cried.

Mahiru rolled her eyes at Mikan and Hiyoko's antics, "Anyways, where are we headed today, Sato?"

Sato grinned, "Well, i was thinking-"

Before Sato could finish speaking, a new voice cut her off, "Really? Well i guess there's a first time for everyone."

The five girls turned around to see the owner of the voice: Natsumi Kuzuryu. This wasn't the first time they had encountered this girl. Seemingly right after the new school year started she had been dedicating her spare time to make theirs as miserable as possible. Although none of them knew why exactly Natsumi had picked them to be the victims of her ire, it seemed that Natsumi disliked Mahiru in particular.

"What do you want, Natsumi?!" Sato snapped.

"Oh, nothing really," Natsumi told her in a somewhat aloof tone, "Just wondering why a bunch of lowly skanks are standing in my way."

Ibuki tilted her head quizzically, "But you have all this space to go around us?"

Natsumi scoffed at her, "Why should I, heiress to the Kuzuryu clan, have to go out of my way to walk around a bunch of good for nothing whores. Know your place and move aside."

"Just because you're a part of the Kuzuryu clan doesn't mean you can treat us like this," Mahiru interjected, "And besides, i thought your brother was the heir-"

Before Mahiru could finish her sentence, Natsumi pushed her to the ground.

"How dare you talk to me like that you bitch," Natsumi growled.

The other four girls ran to Mahiru to help her up as Natsumi walked past then with an arrogant air around her.

"Next time i won't be so nice to you," she said before laughing and walking away.

"A-are you alright?" Mikan asked, "Do you have any pain anywhere?"

"I'm fine, Mikan," Mahiru told her, finally back on her feet. She stared at the direction Natsumi walked off to, "Who the hell does she think she is?! Just because she was born into some important family doesn't mean she can just push us around like than."

"You're right," Sato growled, also starring in Natsumi's direction, "One day, i swear that bitch is going to get just what she deserves."


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

May

As the season of spring slowly began to warm the school, Junko Enoshima was ecstatic at how all the pieces of her plan began to move together, albeit at a much slower pace than she would have liked. Oh well, more despair for her.

Her little 'friendship' with Mikan was going nicely. Poor girl didn't suspect a thing. Little did the submissive nurse know that their whole 'friendship' was nothing but a farce for Junko to destroy at a later date.

Someone building up their confidence only for reality to weigh down on them and crush them further than before. Just thinking about all the future despair made Junko shiver. She sometimes had to physically restrain herself from jumping the gun on that.

That brought the most despair of all. Having to wait for the perfect time to strike. For all she knew it could be tomorrow, or it could never happen at all. Either way, she would feel despair and that was good enough for her.

She needed more people than just one person, however. And as luck would have it, Mikan was her way into a whole class of potential despair devotees. Mikan's four other friends, Mahiru, Ibuki, Hiyoko and Sato, were being bullied by another girl, Natsumi Kuzuryu, and said girl was the younger sister than one of Mikan's classmates, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, to boot! Mikan also told her that she had two other classmates who frequented a hospital she helps out at on occasion. A Nagito Komaeda and Nekomaru Nidai to be precise. Junko cackled manically, it was too perfect! Almost half a class was within her grasp, all because of one naive little nurse!

Getting to Mikan's closer friends and their bully and her brother would be simple, she just had to go after the weakest link and work her way up. Getting into the hospital was the hard part. Junko paused for a moment and tried to think of ways to be admitted into a hospital quickly and without long term repercussions. After thinking for a moment, she stopped herself. Why think about what she will do to herself when she can get her sister to inflict in instead! Junko shivered again, a loved one being forced to inflict pain on one another was a despairful thing indeed.

Junko flipped open her phone and called her into her room. Not even thirty seconds later, Mukuro had arrived at her door.

"Yes, Junko?"

Junko walked over to her sister, "Oh, Mukuro, you're an expert on injuring people, right?"

Mukuro blinked, "Is there someone you want dead?"

Junko shook her head. Killing people all willy nilly wasn't really her style. Of course, that doesn't mean she isn't willing to kill people. You have to see it from both sides, would it be better to drag someone as far down as they can go and bring everybody else with them? Or kill them and strike their loved ones when they're most vulnerable? Not that it mattered now, of course. Junko had a much more subtle approach planned for her next victim.

"I need you to hurt me," Junko told her sister, "Nothing major, just something to get me into the hospital for a couple of days."

"Are you sure about this?"

Junko glared at her, "Do it."

Mukuro nodded, then paused, "Do you have anything in mind? Fracture, dislocation, laceration..?"

Junko's face split into a malevolent smile, "Surprise me."

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"Alright, Nekomaru, you're free to go for today."

Nekomaru guffawed loudly, another easy check-up. "Thanks doc, see you next week!"

It was not common that someone with Nekomaru Nidai's appearance show up at a hospital, even less common was that they came in every week for a check-up. But unlike many others with Nekomaru's muscular build, his heart condition had to be closely monitored for any irregularities.

For many, simply having a condition like Nekomaru's would put them off of any major physical activities, and for a long time, Nekomaru was simply like everyone else who has his condition. That was, until he met another patient a few years ago whose determination and faith in his team kept him going despite said team never winning a game. Said person, Daisuke, led Nekomaru to become the person he is today: the Ultimate Team Manager.

As he walked down the hospital halls to the exit, he heard someone crying profusely. Curious and worried, Nekomaru changed his path to the source of the crying. After a brisk walk down the hall, he stopped outside the room where the sobbing seemed to be coming from. He knocked on the door, not wanting to enter the room unannounced.

The crying stopped, then a meek voice called out.

"C- come in…"

As Nekomaru opened the door, for the briefest moment it looked like the sole inhabitant of this room, a pretty blonde girl with large pigtails, was staring at him with utmost intensity. By the time Nekomaru had fully opened the door, it seemed that it was only his imagination and the girl looked as if she was struggling to keep herself from tearing up again. Nekomaru looked at the girl for a moment, ' _She looks, familiar_ ,' Nekomaru though. After a second on thinking, he realized that this girl was one of the new students at Hope's Peak. One of the new first year students in fact.

"I heard you crying from down the hall," Nekomaru stated, "What's the problem?"

The girl sniffled, "I-i have to prepare for volleyball practice in a couple of days and i won't be able to go because of my…" she pointed to her bandaged arm before continuing her sobbing.

Nekomaru walked further into the room and peered at the girl's arm, then chuckled softly. He had seen injuries like this before, and honestly, as long as she didn't put too much unnecessary strain on it she would be able to go to her practice no problem.

Nekomaru's chuckling then rose into a loud, boisterous laugh. The girl stopped crying in surprise and the sudden raise in volume.

"There is no need to worry! Because I, Nekomaru Nidai, will help you get prepared for your practice!" Nekomaru shouted, "For I am the Ultimate Team Manager!"

The injured girl beamed at him, "You will? Thank you so much!"

Nekomaru guffawed again, "No need to thank me, i'm just doing what i was born to do!"

The girl smiled at him, then realized something, "Oh, I never told you my name! I'm Junko, Junko Enoshima."

"And I am Nekomaru Nidai! Nice to meet you, Junko Enoshima!" Nekomaru bellowed with a smile.

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"See anything yet?"

"No, not yet. Give me a minute."

"What are you two doing?"

Ryota Mitarai, Ultimate Animator, sighed at his two other classmates, Kazuichi Souda, Ultimate Mechanic and Teruteru Hanamura, Ultimate Cook.

"Nothing," Kazuichi said, clearly hiding something behind his back.

Ryota raised an eyebrow and looked out the classroom window the duo was standing in front of. It seemed like the girls from a class senior to theirs were playing an impromptu basketball game outside. Ryota sighed again.

"You do realize that if Mahiru caught you two you'd never hear the end of it, right?"

"Oh, that doesn't sound too bad," Teruteru said with a mischievous smile.

Ryota rolled his eyes and took a seat. Somebody had to keep an eye on these two, might as well be him.

"This thing has a see through clothes option, right?"

"No! Of course not, who do i look like? The Ultimate Inventor? They're just a pair of binoculars with a high zoom setting."

Teruteru turned his head downcast, saddened by the reveal, then shook himself out of it a moment later, "Well, good thing they fit their clothes rather nicely."

"That they do."

As the two horndogs continued spying on the girls, Ryota took this time to think about how he planned to go about his meeting later was no normal meeting, as it would be most unusual to all but the two participants, for Ryota Mitarai would have his weekly chat with himself later today.

If anyone else knew about this meeting, they would be concerned for his mental health. Fortunately for Ryota, there was a very real reason for there to be two of them at any given time.

The reason was that the Ryota Mitarai currently sitting in Hope's Peak Academy was actually an imposter. The Ultimate Imposter in fact.

The imposter had been disguised as Byakuya Togami a couple months before attending Hope's Peak, but during the scouting process one of the staff with a remarkable eye for spotting fakes of any kind, including someone as talented as the ultimate imposter. The scouter told him that the real Byakuya was most likely going to enter Hope's Peak proper the following year and suggested he instead use his talent to fill in for a fellow classmate who had to be absent for most of the school year, if not all of it.

He accepted the offer, of course. In the past he had occasionally been worried that some of her disguises had been sloppy, but if he could hone their ability at Hope's Peak…

She could become anyone. Do anything, say anything, want to rule a nation? Pretend to be their leader. Want to run a corporation? Become their president. Endless possibilities lied in a simple talent they picked up before he even knew how to talk.

The catch? Every week he must meet with the real Ryota Mitarai and keep him caught up on the school work and report progress on his talent to the school staff. A very minor pair of tasks for what she could gain. At first the meetings were quite formal; mostly consisting of a brief hello and a minor exchange of information. But as of late, it seemed that a friendship was forming between the impostor and the animator.

"Holy shit! Her top almost went flying off!"

But that was for later. As of right now, all he had to do was keep her two comrades from attracting attention from the likes of Mahiru.

"Can you two keep it down?! What if somebody hears you down the hall?!"

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When the world was dark and full of evil, the dark lords of fire, wind and stone reigned as rulers of the planet known as Earth. For millennia these three stood unopposed for the control of the world. That was, until the fourth of the dark lords was born. This final lord was said to be far more powerful and evil than the other three combined.

"And his name is... Gundam Tanaka!"

Gundam let out an evil cackle, sending chills down the spine of his foe: a common squirrel who had stolen his pencil.

"Listen here, you minor sciurus, if you do not relinquish the cursed quill you will be fated to be burned in the innermost circles of hell! So give it forth to save yourself from that horrible fate!"

The squirrel tilted its head at Gundam, making it obvious to him that the beast did not have a shred of fear in its heart.

Gundam chuckled, impressed by his opponents fearlessness. "Very well, dark sciurus, you have survived long enough to witness my ultimate weapon: the pure evil known as the Four Dark Devas of Destruction!"

Gundam cackled again is the four Deva's emerged from the depths of his soul and stood menacingly before the squirrel.

"Now my Devas, return the quill to me so i can harness its power!"

The Four Dark Devas charged the squirrel at lightning speed. A grand battle took place, lasting for hours and destroying all life surrounding the battlefield. Finally, the beaten squirrel dropped the pencil and fled towards the endless forest to the east. In the centre of the scorched area lie the cursed quill, glowing a deep yellow. With his protected arm, Gundam seized his prize.

He smirked, pleased that the cursed quill was back in his possession. Now it was time to return to other matters.

"Come my Devas, we must return to the Grand Academy and make them bow at our might!"

The four hamsters chirped happily at their master and ran back up his body and into their burrows in his scarf. They would be fed well tonight.

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"What have i told you about hitting Mahiru?!"

"Does it look like I care about what you tell me, you fucking dyke?!"

"Sato! Stop please!"

Mahiru grabbed her friends arm before she could finish her swing at Natsumi, who had the spitting image of a shit eating grin plastered on her face.

"What's wrong, Sato? Can't finish a punch without your little girlfriend?"

Sato glared at Natumi with the fires of hell in her eyes, before shrugging Mahiru off her and turning away.

Natsumi laughed, "I knew you didn't have it in you. Oh well, as fun as it would have been to send a hitman after you for hurting me, at least i know you're too much of a pussy to actually go through with it."

Natsumi continued her laugh as she walked down a ways into her personal limousine to take here into the city.

Sato and Mahiru glared at the car as it drove off into the distance. Mahiru broke her gaze first before sighing.

"Sato, you have to stop getting goaded by her like that. What if she was serious about getting you killed?"

Sato said nothing as she too turned away from the street. Clearly still furious about what had just happened.

"I… i need a couple minutes to cool off," Sato finally said, "You go meet up with Ibuki and them at the mall, I'll catch up in a bit."

Mahiru gave her friend a worried look, before nodding and walking towards the mall. Once she was out of sight, Sato angrly kicked a rock flying into a tree.

"Who does that fucking bitch think she is?" she growled, "being a fucking yakuza just gives you every right to just show up and start pushing Mahiru around?!"

As she continued to fume, another girl emerged from the corner of the academy courtyard.

"I agree," the girl said, startling Sato, "That other girl has no right to do that to your friend."

"Who are you?" Sato asked, eyeing the new girl suspiciously.

"Me? I'm just somebody who wants to help you."

Sato scoffed, "How are you going to help? Natsumi's a yakuza heir, there's nothing any of us can do about it."

The new girl frowned, then her face changed into a more thoughtful look.

"This Natsumi sounds pretty dangerous," she said, "Just her being in this school is putting everyone else at risk, especially your friend."

Sato nodded, then sighed, "Yeah, but what can i do to someone like her?"

"Hmm, that is a problem," the girl said, "Have you told the teachers about this?"

Sato frowned, "They refuse to do anything. They're scared of her, too."

"The police?"

"Why would the police care about a bullying case at a school? And besides, the yakuza probably have all of them on their bankroll."

The new girl frowned, then returned to her thoughtful look. After a few minutes of thinking, she spoke.

"Well, there is one thing i can think of, but you probably won't like it."

Sato's face lit up, "What is it? At this point i'll do anything to help Mahiru!"

The girl shrugged, "okay, but don't say i didn't warn you."

"Just tell me!"

"You could always kill her."

Sato's face froze in surprise, "K-kill her?"

The other girl nodded, "Honestly you'd be doing everyone a favour, getting rid of a bully and a yakuza member at the same time. It's hitting two birds with one stone, really."

Sato frowned, "Killing seems pretty extreme though…"

The mysterious girl shrugged again, "That's the best i can think of. But who knows how far Natsumi will go? What if she kills Mahiru herself?"

A look of horror dawned on Sato's face. She didn't really care about Natsumi threatening her, but what if Mahiru got killed because of something she did?

"Oh well, i guess i'll see you later! You get your bully problem fixed, alright?"

With that the strange girl walked off, leaving Sato by herself once more.

"Kill Natsumi? Will that really save Mahiru?" she mused.

Natsumi had definitely gone from minor insults to physical assault in a matter of weeks, and they still had the entire rest of the school year for her to keep upping the ante. Sato frowned. Was killing the only option here?

After a couple more minutes, Sato arrived at her ultimatum. If Natsumi continued to bully her and Mahiru, Sato would personally try to get her to stop peacefully, and if that didn't work…

Sato would kill Natsumi.


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

June

"...So please, Natsumi. Leave Mahiru alone."

"So that's what this shit is about? You want to play hero with your carpet munching friend?"

Natsumi laughed, "Well since you're so sincere about it… No. I think I'll kill Mahiru after all!"

"W-what?!"

"You had the audacity to whine and bitch at me to not hurt Mahiru," Natsumi told her arrogantly, "So I think killing her is proper punishment, don't you think?"

"You fucking BITCH!"

Crack

Faster than Sato had time to think clearly, and faster than Natsumi could've reacted, Sato had swung her improvised weapon at Natsumi's head.

Natsumi's eyes bulged out of her head, bloodshot, as her mouth opened and closed slowly, trying to form words. A horrible squelching noise could be heard from Natsumi's skull as the swimsuit filled with gravel pulled free from the newly formed cracks as blood came bursting out of it like a punctured water balloon.

"Ghhk" was the sound that finally came out of Natsumi's mouth right before her body shut down and collapsed.

Sato panted heavily, still not totally believing in the deed she had just done.

Blood continued to pour from Natsumi's head forming a pool around her corpse. Her eyes had shut themselves, presumably because she was in the middle of blinking before she fell. Finally, the blood flow slowed it's rate and a low hiss filled the room as the last remaining blood and air exited Natsumi's skull.

"I… I did it…" Sato breathed, "I saved Mahiru…"

The hissing ceased, leaving Sato alone in her silence. She looked at Natsumi's lifeless body, and the reality of what she had just done began to dawn on her.

"I… just killed Natsumi..."

Sato froze. If anyone knew what she had just done, she would be arrested. If Natsumi's family learned what she had done she would be killed.

"I have to get out of here!"

Frantically, Sato dropped her makeshift flail and tore out of the room, locking the door behind her.

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Nagito Komaeda was an odd individual, even by Hope's Peak standards. Luck was something one could hardly call a talent, but it's presence always made itself known. For Nagito Komaeda, it was both a curse and a blessing. When he was young his parents died in a plane accident, which led to him inheriting millions. One time he was abducted and held for ransom only to be thrown in the dumpster one it had been paid, only to find a winning lottery ticket.

Recently, he had been diagnosed with a fatal illness in a few years time, only to be admitted into Hope's Peak Academy the following day. Nagito could hardly believe it, someone like him going to school with the most talented individuals in the world.

It was a dream come true. Finally, after so many years of unwanted misfortune, his curse finally paid off. He would be there to see the future hopes of the world shine bright.

For Nagito, hope was one of the few things he knew he could always rely on. Even when everything was at its worst, so long as even a shred of hope remained he knew that hope would pull through in the end.

Despite all Nagito loved about Hope's Peak, there was one thing he was unhappy about. It was trivial, really. Most would call it common sense once they really sat and thought about it.

The reserve course was something that should be demolished and forgotten about, is what Nagito had told the principal of Hope's Peak mere hours ago. The principal, Jin Kirigiri, had disagreed, telling Nagito that the reserve course could help develop talents that would otherwise go unnoticed by the scouting program.

Nagito had disagreed with this line of thought, if nobody had been able to notice the talent within them by the point they had been able to get into the reserve course, it was clear there was none to begin with.

As Nagito buried himself in his thoughts, he failed to notice he managed to walk from the principal's office all the way to the courtyard. The sound of two people talking broke him out of his concentration as he snapped back into reality. Nagito turned to see who was having the conversation.

The first person he saw was none other than a classmate of his, Chiaki Nanami, and the other person was…

Who was he? Nagito frowned, he thought he knew all the Ultimates in the school at the moment, but he had never seen this one before. He continued to muse until he noticed a very clear tell on why he couldn't recognise this schoolmate.

The boy talking to Chiaki was reserve course trash. The mere fact that someone in the reserve course, who Nagito viewed even lower than himself, was even in the same vicinity of an Ultimate, enraged Nagito like nothing else.

He walked over to Chiaki and the reserve course boy.

"Oh, Chiaki, what are you doing here?"

Chiaki blinked and looked at Nagito, "I'm playing a game with Hajime."

She was playing a game with him? This confused Nagito, he wanted her to achieve as much as she could as the Ultimate Gamer, which required her to play games, but why would she want to play a game with somebody so obviously below her level?

"Why would you want to practice your talent with someone obviously under your level when there are tons of Ultimates here you could actually help you?"

Chiaki frowned, "Hajime is my friend, I like playing games with him."

This confirmed Nagito's worst fears: that Chiaki had lowered herself to the same level as the reserve course trash.

"Why would you be friends with trash like him when there are so many other Ultimates that can help you reach further heights with your talent?"

The reserve course boy angry got to his feet, "Who're you calling trash?!"

Nagito ignored him, "Honestly, Chiaki, just imagine how much better you'll be at video games once you forget about people like him and get the friends you deserve!"

With that, Nagito turned to leave, but not before catching a glance the reserve course boy trying to throw a punch at him, only to get his foot caught on a root and crash into the ground. Nagito paid no further mind to the reserve trash as he carried on his way out of the courtyard and back to his dormitory room.

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"Please no! I'm sorr-"

Crunch.

Sato slumped to the ground, blood gushing out of her now caved in skull. Fuyuhiko glared at the body. Sato's corpse was almost virtually unmarked sans the bloody pulp of what used to be her forehead, almost exactly like how Natsumi looked when her body was found three days prior.

"Are you alright? Maybe I should have been the one to-"

"No, Peko," Fuyuhiko told his bodyguard and classmate, "She was my sister. An eye for an eye."

"Even so, if they find out it was you who killed her…"

Fuyuhiko shook his head, "Even if they did, what can they do about it? They know who I am. If you had done it and they found out, you would have been expelled and who knows what else."

Although he was enraged that somebody had killed his sister, even more so when he found evidence that whoever did it had a partner to help cover it up, killing her wasn't his initial plan. Sure, he was the heir to the Kuzuryu clan, who are noteworthy in their brutality towards those who cross them, but Fuyuhiko was, for lack of a better word, softer than the rest of his family. But that doesn't mean when push comes to shove he isn't willing to crack some skulls or chop off some digits. But cold blooded murder was too extreme, he felt.

Or at least, that was how he felt prior to this. After he found the photographs in the dumpster, a strange blonde girl approached him going on and on about some girl named Sato wanting to kill another girl named Natsumi. It didn't take him long to put two and two together and with a little encouragement from the blonde girl, his revenge had been set.

Now all that was left of said plan was the aluminum bat. The bat had a large red splatter on it, with a couple bone fragments now embedded into the aluminum along with a large dent. Fuyuhiko tossed it next to the body. Leaving it at the scene was better than somebody catching him with it on the way out, not that it mattered if they found his prints on it anyways.

"Let's get out of here."

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"There, there, Mahiru."

It had been a couple days since Sato had been murdered, no doubt by the same pervert who killed Natsumi a couple days prior. Although Ibuki was sad at her friends death, Mahiru had taken it the hardest, having known her since she was a child.

"Look on the bright side, at least they caught the scumbag who did this," Ibuki said trying to reassure her friend.

Unfortunately, this only caused Mahiru to start crying even harder. Ibuki went back to patting her back in an attempt to console her.

"It's all my fault," she said in between sobs.

"No it's not," Ibuki told her, "Nobody could have known that they would've come back."

Mahiru looked at Ibuki with a pained expression, and seemed to want to say something, only to slump back down again.

"There, there."

Ibuki then looked to Hiyoko and Mikan, who were also saddened at the death of Sato, although they seemed to have finished most of their crying.

Ibuki sighed to herself, being around this many bummed out people and not being able to really do anything about it wasn't her style, but it was better than doing a failed attempt at cheering them up only to make it worse.

There had been a memorial day planned for Natsumi, and when Sato died almost immediately after the day had been changed to be for the two of them. Everybody in the school was shocked for there to have been a murder, even more so that a second followed so closely after. Of course, Ibuki had also gone to try and see if Fuyuhiko was alright, but he brushed her off completely. 'I guess being part of the yakuza got him ready for deaths in the family,' she thought.

Ibuki sighed again. Why couldn't everything be like last year? Nobody was dead and everybody was happy just going to school. Now there seems to be a growing divide in the class. Chiaki seems to be more frosty towards Nagito, Mikan has been slowly distancing herself from everybody, Nekomaru looks strained and Fuyuhiko keeps glaring at Mahiru for some reason.

Whatever was causing this, Ibuki hoped that everything would get better soon.

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Hajime Hinata stood nervously at the entrance to the staff room in the reserve course building. At last, the day where he needed to make his decision had arrived. It had caused him a great many hours of thought, but Hajime had finally arrived at a conclusion.

As the door opened, Hajime was greeted with a warm welcome from Kazuo Tengan, the man who had offered him the choice in the first place.

"So, I take it you have made up your mind?"

Hajime nodded, "I have, sir."

Tengan nodded, "I doubt I need to remind you now of all times, but this is no light subject."

"I understand, sir, and I have made my choice."

Tengan hummed, giving Hajime the go ahead to speak his answer.

Hajime took a deep breath, then exhaled.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot go through with the Kamukura Project."

Tengan blinked, but his face remained the same.

"I see. Any particular reason why? I don't mean to pry."

Hajime nodded, "There are… a number of reasons. But the main one is that, even though getting into Hope's Peak is what I've always wanted, just getting in like this doesn't feel right. Just entering the main course through a special program isn't how it should be."

Tengan hummed again, "That's very unfortunate, Hajime. You were our best candidate for the project."

"I'm sorry, sir."

"Well, I suppose nothing can be done if that is your choice," Tengan said, flicking his eye somewhere to Hajime's left.

Suddenly, Hajime felt a sharp pain in his neck.

"What the-?"

Hajime collapsed to the floor, unable to move. He desperately tried to look up at Tengan.

"I hope you understand, Hajime, that this project is far too important to be put on hold again."

Hajime tried to say something, anything, to ask what was happening.

"If you had consented to the project, things would be different. Unfortunately, that isn't the case."

Tengan snapped his fingers right before Hajime noticed that he was being dragged across the floor. The last thing he saw was the large checkered design of the carpet before a searing pain split his head and the world went dark.


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4

July

Chiaki sat in her usual spot by the fountain, playing a game by herself as she waited for Hajime to arrive. Or at least, she told herself he would arrive.

It had been a little over a week when Hajime vanished. He had told her he needed to speak with the former headmaster of Hope's Peak, Kazuo Tengan, about something on June thirty first. Now it was July eleventh and nobody had seen Hajime since.

She had gone to the reserve course staff a couple days after, around July seventh. They had told her that there was nobody going to school there with the name Hajime Hinata, and that perhaps she had gotten the name wrong.

The fact that the staff had denied Hajime had gone to school there worried her. There had been two deaths in the main course shortly after June started, but the staff there had said the culprit had been caught. Did they lie? Chiaki shook her head in an attempt to drive the thought out of her head. If another person she cared about died…

'No, no more thinking about that,' Chiaki told herself.

Chiaki sighed and tried to focus on playing her game. Suddenly, the screen started jittering and froze a moment later.

"It glitched?"

That was unusual. This had never happened with this particular game before, and she thought that she took well enough care of her games so that dust wouldn't cause problems. She tried taking out the cartridge and airing it out, but nothing seemed to fix the problem.

Chiaki slumped over. That's what she needed. More problems to deal with. Hajime's missing, people are lying to her and now her favourite game isn't working. She closed her eyes, trying to ignore everything that was going on, even for a moment.

"E-excuse me. Are you alright?"

Chiaki opened her eyes to see a small girl staring at her.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, i'm fine," she said, righting herself.

"A-are you sure? You look very sad."

Chiaki shook her head, "It's nothing," she told the other girl. "It's just," she picked up her gamegirl, "One of my games isn't working right and I'm feeling a bit tired is all."

The small girl tilted her head quizzically, "Is it broken?"

"It's glitched, I think."

"Maybe I can fix it?"

Chiaki beamed at her, "Do you know how?"

The smaller girl blushed, "If it's just a bug in the programing, I think I can."

Chiaki smiled. Finally, some good news. Before she could ask the smaller girl more about it, she was cutoff.

"Oh, I forgot to ask your name."

"My name is Chiaki. Chiaki Nanami."

The small girl smiled, "My name is Chihiro Fujisaki, I'm sure I'll have your game fixed in no time, Chiaki."

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"Coach."

"Hey, Coach."

"Coach?"

"Hey, Nekomaru!"

"What?!"

"Geez, Nekomaru, I thought you had a heart attack or something."

Akane grinned at Nekomaru, who grunted in response.

"What do you need?" he asked bluntly.

"You said you were going to help me train, remember?"

Nekomaru hummed, "Yes, I did."

"Well, come on then! I've got a thing coming up and I need the money."

Nekomaru frowned, "Is this all this is to you? A means to get money?"

Akane tilted her head, "Well, yeah. It makes more that working in those diners and I need to feel the kids somehow."

Nekomaru hummed again. He had forgotten that although Akane's primary motivation for training was to be good enough in gymnest competitions to win was not for herself, but for her siblings she needed to feed. He nodded, "Alright. Let's take it from the top. Show me what you're made of!"

Akane grinned and began her routine as Nekomaru lost himself in thought again. It had been a little under two months since he had begun training his underclassman, Junko Enoshima, and for the first time since he had started training people, nothing he did seemed to help with her progress. He had tried everything, standard techniques, professional plays, informal matches. Hell, he even tried doing "It" to increase her ability. But nothing worked.

Nekomaru frowned. Was it simply that she was untrainable? 'No,' he concluded.

That would be absurd. Nobody was completely untrainable, all he needed was a different was of going at it was all. Maybe he could ask her what her former training was like to get an idea of how she operates.

"Hey Coach, am I doing alright?"

Akane's yelling snapped Nekomaru away from his musings. "Yes, you're doing fine," he told her.

He was sure he could train Junko to be a master volleyball player, no matter the cost. With a nod, Nekomaru finally tore himself completely from his thoughts and focused his attention back on Akane.

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It was not the first time Mahiru Koizumi found herself sitting by an old tree in the Hope's Peak courtyard, nor would it be the last. But even still, every time she found herself sitting there, she always looked back through her old photo album, a trip down memory lane as it were.

But for the past few weeks, she always found herself skipping one particular section of the album. Sato's section. Although the crying finally stopped, in some ways she hated herself for just getting over something like that relatively quickly. But even still, she couldn't manage to bring herself to see her deceased friend's smiling face again.

"Hey, whatcha looking at?"

Mahiru nearly jumped out of her skin when somebody poked their head from the other side of the tree and looked into her picture album. She spun around and saw a smiling girl with blonde pigtails.

Mahiru eyed her suspiciously, "You do know it's rude to spy on people, right?"

The blonde girl continued her face splitting smile, "Aww come on, you looked really sad and I wanted to see what was wrong."

Mahiru turned away from the girl, "It's none of your business."

The blonde sighed, then shrugged, "Oh well, can't blame me for trying. Although," she paused, "i couldn't help but notice all the people in your pictures looked happy."

"So what? I like taking pictures of happy people."

The blonde laughed, "Well, if your feeling down, looking at happy people isn't going to make you feel better."

Mahiru said nothing, which was the other girl's cue to continue.

"If anything, you should take pictures of people who feel the same thing you do."

"What do you mean?" Mahiru asked, somewhat cautious.

A somewhat eerie grin split the blonde girl's face, "Well, if you're feeling sad and you take pictures of happy people, wouldn't that make you feel worse? I mean, here you are down in the dumps while these other guys keep smiling away without a care in the world. Not really fair, is it?"

Again Mahiru found herself without a voice with this strange girl, she wanted to argue against that, but she couldn't think of a proper way to refute her.

"So what I was thinking," she continued, "Is that to make yourself feel better, why don't you take pictures of people who are feeling the same as you."

"So you want me to take pictures of people who are unhappy, right?" Mahiru snapped, "What, just because I feel terrible it means everybody else does too?"

"I never said you had to make them sad," the blonde girl said without missing a beat, "I just suggested you take pictures of people already feeling sad."

Mahiru huffed to herself, making it clear to the blonde that she may have pushed her a bit too much.

"Look, it's just a suggestion. Nobody's going to her hurt if you take a couple measly photos about someone crying, right?"

Mahiru took a moment to think over what this girl was saying. It was true that every time she looked through her photo album all the smiling people didn't really do much to improve her mood, but would looking at the opposite really be any better? She wanted to say 'no', but this was the only time in her life she had ever been devastated like this, and it wasn't really the first time she had taken some morally questionable photos…

Mahiru sighed, "Fine, I'll take a couple pictures if that'll make you leave me alone."

"Great!" the blonde girl said, grin returned, "I'll come see you again in a few weeks, hope you feel better soon!"

With that, the strange girl walked off back into the academy, leaving Mahiru alone with her thoughts again. She sighed.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

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Sonia Nevermind sat in her classroom seat in silence. It was after school hours and the rest of her classmates had left for for home or gone with their friends. In some ways, it saddened her she could not live life like the rest of them, without a care in the world, living day by day. Despite her wealth and status, or perhaps due to it, Sonia could not afford such luxuries.

She had heard news from Novoselic. News that could turn bad if improper measures were taken. There was talk about corruption within the royal family, something along the lines of her parents doing shady deals with other leaders for various reasons. In her heart and mind, Sonia knew these rumors were false and only a fool would think they were true. But as the saying goes, the wrong man in the right place can make all the difference in the world. Her parents must be careful when asked any questions on the subject. One missaying, a pause a little too long, the wrong expression, could spell doom for their credibility.

There were doctrines, that if the royal family were to ever be found unfit to rule, Novoselic's military would have right to seize command of the country and remove the royals with any force necessary. This time, however, there was an exception to this rule. Sonia was away overseas, and thus any charges laid against her parents she would be exempt from if they took place within the timeframe she is away, which is about a year and a half currently.

The weight of this was heavy on Sonia's shoulders. Scandals in Novoselic were taking very seriously, and the mention of possible corruption only made matters worse. She had considered taking time off from school to go back to Novoselic to help ease the pressure off of her parents, but they had refused, telling her that they would be able to quell the rising doubt and to focus on having a proper school life at Hope's Peak with her friends.

Sonia sighed, she loved her parents, but sometimes they didn't understand that she could help them with royal affairs of this kind along with her princess duties. But none the less, she would take her parents word to heart. Worrying about nonsense like this would only stress her more than necessary.

'This is nothing more than the media being desperate for a story', she concluded, 'By this time next month all of this foolishness will be forgotten about.'

With that Sonia left her seat and walked back to her dormitory room to relax. Unfortunately, a single seed of worry still remained within her, a seed that would be exploited soon enough.

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"I'm back. how's progress?"

Ryota Mitarai tore his eyes away from his computer screen for the first time in hours to turn to his double. He sighed softly.

"It's… slow. But not the bad kind of slow, just trying to get everything to run smoothly," He told the impostor.

The impostor smiled softly as he dropped off multiple bags full of food and other necessities in Ryota's dormitory room before grabbing a chair and sitting down. He rifled through one of the bags before pulling out a package of beef jerky and began eating it.

"You really should come to class, Ryota," she said in between bites, "it would do you some good to go outside and take a rest from this, even if just for a few hours."

"I can't," Ryota said abruptly, "I have a deadline I can't miss in a couple weeks and I can't afford to take any longer than I already have."

The imposter shook his head and threw the now empty package into a garbage can.

"You're withering away in here, you know. I'm sure you've felt the strain on yourself from living like this."

"You tell me this every time you come to meet me," Ryota sighed, "I know this isn't healthy, but there's nothing I can do. There are people depending on me to have a finished product within a deadline."

"Then promise me this," the doppelganger said, "Promise me that when you're done with this next project you'll come out and meet the rest of your classmates."

Ryota sighed and shook his head, "Even if I could do that, why would they want to meet me? It's already been over a year and besides, they already have you."

"I can pick up another disguise and the teachers will say they have a new classmate, no one would be the wiser."

"Wouldn't they ask questions on how I slimmed down so fast?"

The imposter chuckled, "Just say the summer heat made you sweat it off. Hell, I'm feeling it right now."

This time it was Ryota's turn to laugh. After a moment, he stopped and asked his imposter a question.

"I've been meaning to ask you this for a while, but why are you so nice to me anyways? The teachers told me it would be a business relationship between the two of us."

This question made the imposter pause herself. He had also wondered why their relationship went from imposter/impersonated to simple friends.

"I suppose," she said, "It's because you're the first person I'm impersonating that I've ever spoken to more than a single time. Maybe it started off as me simple wanting to know my role better? But now, it seems that it's more than that."

"More how?"

The imposter smiled softly, "Well, I consider the two of us to be friends, don't you agree?"

This time it was Ryota who smiled, "I guess we are, aren't we?"

The two friends continued to speak into the evening, until Ryota noticed the time and insisted that he must return work in his animating. With that, the impostor left her newfound friend to their work and continued into the peaceful summer night.


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5

August

As the searing heat of the summer sun gave way to the cool breeze of an August night, Junko Enoshima sat idly in the dim courtyard of Hope's Peak Academy waiting for her sister to arrive.

Normally she wouldn't bother herself with every little thing Mukuro did, but tonight was special. Through her modest yet effective little network she had built up, rumors of a supposed "Ultimate Hope" were circulating amongst the highest officials of the Hope's Peak staff. On paper, only ten people knew, two of them were the current and former headmasters, Jin Kirigiri and Kazuo Tengan respectively, with six others being top scientists who graduated Hope's Peak along with another mysterious person who Junko had found records of being the Ultimate Hunter.

But only one name caught her eye. The supposed "Ultimate Hope". The documents that had been retrieved by Mukuro the month prior suggested that the Ultimate Hope would be active on school grounds at the end of August. Having the Ultimate Hope within walking distance of both herself and her soon to be subjects would ordinarily be worrying. But there was something else that suggested the Ultimate Hope had a flaw. A very easily exploitable flaw.

The reports said that the Ultimate was not a traditional student that was scouted, but rather, was selected and then had the talent of Ultimate Hope forced on them. How that worked Junko had no idea, but the reports had also said that this Ultimate Hope was very easy to manipulate. Not that they were gullible, there had been many notes that stressed the opposite, but even still this Ultimate Hope would listen to the commands of pretty much anybody if they had deemed them as somebody worth paying attention to.

Which had brought up another flaw. The Ultimate Hope has severe apathy to almost everything. In the first couple tests the subject had been rather excited to see what was going on, but after a moment the excitement led to chronic boredom. This had given Junko an idea.

If Junko managed to convince this "Ultimate Hope" that despair could alleviate his boredom problem, wouldn't that also make him Ultimate Despair? She grinned at the thought. Turning the Ultimate Hope into Ultimate Despair. It was perfect.

As Junko was making the finer details of her plot in her head, Mukuro emerged from the shadows at last to give Junko the last bit of information she needed.

"So, do they have a name yet?"

Mukuro nodded, "Izuru Kamukura, Ultimate Hope. It would be best if we kept an eye out for him."

Junko laughed, "Izuru Kamukura? As in the founder?"

"Apparently the project was named after him. The Kamukura Project is what they settled on."

"So if this Ultimate Hope is the goal of the Kamukura Project, why didn't any of the documents you gave me have that name?"

Mukuro shrugged, "None of them were official. The ones I gave you were notes from the head scientist."

Junko nodded in response. Although getting the official project documents was what she originally wanted, the head scientist's notes were arguably more valuable. Actually knowing what this Izuru Kamukura was like was far better than how he is supposed to be.

"Is there an opening for us to meet him?"

Mukuro shook her head, "Not for a while. From what I overheard all of the current testings has taken place in a lab somewhere under the school grounds, but just going down there would cause too many problems. Our best bet is to wait until the outdoor testing starts."

"Any idea when that will be?"

"None of them had an exact day," Mukuro said, "But the plan seems to be some time around the end of this month."

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Kazuichi Soda considered himself a simple man. Give him a wrench, a box of parts and anything mechanical and he would guarantee he would have something functional by the end of the week.

The subject of today was something he had been meaning to get his hands on for a good while: a motorcycle. Although he's worked on motorbikes in the past, the goal for today was to see how fast he could get this thing going.

As he worked on the motorcycle, his mind began to wander to other things, such as the strange tension growing in his class. Every since May, everyone seems to have been on edge for some reason. Mahiru and Fuyuhiko won't speak with each other, Mikan's being more aggressive with trying to make Hiyoko stop antagonizing her, Nekomaru being far quieter than usual, and Sonia's a lot more somber.

Kazuichi sighed as he paused his work. He knew something was going on behind the scenes that he didn't know about. Weather they were all related was another story but what he did know was that Mahiru, Hiyoko, Mikan, Ibuki and Fuyuhiko were really bummed out about the recent double murder that happened in June due to them all knowing one of the victims. What the really weird thing was Nekomaru not being his boisterous self. He had recently asked Akane but she said that Nekomaru hadn't told her anything when she asked.

But the one that worried him the most was Sonia. Although he claims to both Teruteru and Ryota that he's gotten over her, truth be told he still holds her in higher regard than the rest of the girls in the class. He knew deep down that his chances with her are slim to none, and he also knows that coming to terms with that is probably the most healthy thing to do, but still there are times he wishes that she felt the same way with him as he does for her.

Kazuichi shook his head to clear out his thoughts. Now was not the time to worry about classroom chemistry, it was time to work on the bike. Kazuichi put on his goggles and began tinkering away at it with newfound vigor. After a few hours of next to nonstop work, he pulled himself away and gazed upon his new creation.

Kazuichi whistled, "Isn't she a beauty?" he said aloud.

As the mechanic admired his own handiwork, he failed to notice somebody entering the garage until they called out.

"Hello? Is anybody in here?"

Kazuichi jumped, not expecting the sudden intruder.

"Huh?"

Kazuichi turned to see a blonde girl with pigtails wandering around near the entrance if the garage. After spotting him she waved then walked over to him.

"Oh good, you are in here."

"Were you looking for me?"

The girl nodded, "Yep, one of the people in you class wants to see you, Ryota was what his name was?"

Kazuichi frowned, "Ryota? What could be going on that he's looking for me?"

The girl shrugged, "I don't know, he didn't say."

She then looked past Kazuichi and saw his motorcycle.

"Hey, is that what you were doing?" she asked, pointing at the bike.

Kazuichi grinned, "Yep, she used to be not much more than a pile of scrap, but I managed to fix her up with a couple of other modifications too. I work on all sorts of stuff in here."

The girl stared at the bike for a moment, and Kazuichi could barely hear her muttering something.

"This could be great for Mondo…"

"What?"

The girl spun around and smiled at him, "Oh, nothing."

Kazuichi gave her a wary nod, before heading towards the garage door.

"Hey, sorry, but you gotta leave too. I'm supposed to lock up the place when I'm not around."

The girl shrugged at him then walked past him out the door, then asked him a question.

"Oh, in case of future reference, you're Kazuichi Soda, right?"

"Yep, that's the name."

The blonde nodded, "Well, I'm Junko Enoshima. I'm looking forwards to what you come up with in the future, Kazuichi."

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"Mama? Are you sure you can carry that?"

"It's nothing I can't handle, what you should be worrying about is the soup."

For the summer break Teruteru had returned to his family's diner to help out. Ordinarily his younger brother and sister would be the ones helping their mother out, but this year they were away on business. He didn't mind his mother calling him to ask him to help, however.

"Soup's ready!"

"Can you take it to them? I need to chop some vegetables."

Teruteru nodded then brought the soup and other ordered items to their respective tables before returning to the kitchen.

"Do they like it?"

"Of course they like it, the Ultimate Chef made it specially for them," Teruteru said proudly.

His mother smiled with pride at her son, before a wave of dizziness struck her and she tightly gripped the counter to prevent herself from falling over.

"Mama!"

"I'm alright Teru," she said with a pained expression, "This will pass in a moment."

"Let me help you!"

Teruteru rushed to his mother's side and supported her into one of the side rooms with a seat. His mother sighed as she sat down.

"I told you I was alright. You don't have to do all the work yourself."

Teruteru shook his head, "I don't want to risk you hurting yourself. It's fine, Mama, I can handle it."

His mother sighed again, before accepting that her son wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Just rest for now," Teruteru said before going back to the kitchen.

A couple hours passes as the dinner rush came and went, and after the last customer left the now empty diner, Teruteru closed up shop and returned to his mother, who had entered the kitchen again during the height of the dinner rush.

"You didn't have to come and help, I had everything under control."

His mother laughed, "Did you now? You seemed to have a little trouble over at table five."

"The food was fine and that's all that mattered," Teruteru said, somewhat embarrassed that his mother saw him nearly slip earlier.

The two shared a short chuckle, before they began cleaning the dishes. After a few silent moments where only the sound of plates being cleaned and dried could be heard, Teruteru mother turned to her son. Teruteru noticed that his mother had stopped drying and stopped himself.

"Mama? What's wrong?"

"Teru, I know you want what's best for me and the diner," she said, "But there may come a time where helping me here isn't what you should be doing."

Teruteru gave his mother a quizzical look, "What do you mean, Mama?"

His mother sighed, "Someday there may come a time where you're siblings may need you more than I do. If that ever happens, I want you to support them."

Teruteru frowned, "I don't understand."

His mother shook her head and sighed, "If my illness gets worse, Teru, I want you to help your brother and sister. They're old enough to go out themselves now, but you are still their big brother. I need you to look out for them if," she paused, "If I can't. Do you understand what I'm saying, Teru?"

Teruteru grasped his mother's hands, "Don't talk like that, Mama. Once I become a world renowned chef I'll get the best doctors in the world to help you."

"Teru…"

"So don't worry about things like that, everything will be fine."

"Teru please," she said, almost begging. "I know you will do well in the future, but I need you to promise me if anything happens, you must take care of your brother and sister before me."

"But-"

"Promise me, Teru. Please."

"I…" he paused. He loved his brother and sister, but at times he figured they were better off without him interfering with their affairs. But at the same time, he also loved his mother and didn't want her to worry about what might happen to them or himself.

"I promise, Mama."

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Deep below Hope's Peak Academy there was a secret laboratory outfitted with the most state of the art medical and research equipment. Within the laboratory stood seven scientists, and an eight person who was their subject.

The subject was five foot eight inches, with long jet black hair and red eyes. Said eyes looked almost lazilly around the room, but they absorbed all the information possible.

"Are you ready for the outdoor testing, Izuru?" One of the scientists asked.

"Yes," Izuru responded bluntly.

When he first awoke about a month ago he knew nothing. No name, no memories, nothing that would help him figure out how he got here. The scientists had told him that his name was Izuru Kamukura, and he was the most talented person ever to exist. After that he had done some basic testing. Said tests involved math, various sciences, cooking, sewing, pretty much any activity that could be done inside, he had done it and he had perfected it.

Either way, he was here now and he found no point in resisting the people instructing him to do things. After all, it was clear to both him and them that he could leave whenever he wanted to and they wouldn't be able to stop him.

After the scientists finished their note taking, they then led Izuru to an elevator to the surface. Once there, the doors opened and they walked down a long hallway until they reached a set of large double doors.

"Alright, Izuru, your first test is a speed test. Outside these doors is a track that you need to run four laps around. We will give you a signal when we are ready."

Izuru said nothing as he pushed the doors open and say his first look at the world outside.

Everything was painted in the pale light from the moon, which illuminated the clear in the night sky. Around him he saw dark trees and dry grass, with the sound of the summer insects buzzing away. Not far from where he stood he say a chain link gate, to which he assumed was to the track he would be tested on. It only took seconds for Izuru to process all this, and less realize how dull it all was.

As the scientists led him to the track, Izuru noticed some very slight movement in the darkness. He zeroed in on the movement and noticed a slight amount of unnaturalness to it. They were being watched.

One of the scientists picked up on Izuru's focused gaze and stopped.

"Is something wrong, Izuru?"

Izuru said nothing for a moment, before turning away from where he saw the movement.

"No," He told him.

The scientist nodded then continued towards the track. Once they arrived, Izuru noticed the movement again, but this time it was much more obvious and heading straight for him and the scientists.

Before any of the seven scientists had time to react, they were all beaten unconscious before any of them knew what was happening. Izuru alone stood amongst them.

Then, off to his left, he heard applause.

"Well done, Mukuro! You really got them."

Mukuro. He spun around and caught the arm that was inches from his head and threw the owner over himself. The attacker crashed onto the ground with a thud.

"Who are you?" He asked the darkness.

"Aww, you caught her. I guess I'll have to do this the boring way instead."

Out from the shadows came a lone girl. She had blonde hair that was done in a pigtail fashion. Izuru immediately noticed the analytical look in her eyes. She was an Ultimate student, no doubt.

"Who are you?" He asked again.

The girl grinned, her white teeth glowing in the dark, "Me? I'm Junko Enoshima, Ultimate Fashionista, Analyst and Ultimate Despair. Nice to meet you, Izuru Kamukura."

To no surprise, this girl knew his name. It would have been strange if he didn't, considering how she clearly got Mukuro to assault his escorts. But what really caught his attention, was her title, Ultimate Despair.

Izuru stared at her, and she stared at him. Both were analyzing the other for an opening, before Junko shrugged and dropped her gaze.

"Man, there's no way I can do anything to a guy like you."

'She gave up? Why?' Izuru thought to himself.

Junko grinned, she had noticed the slightest amount of confusion on his face.

"Why? Is that what you're thinking? Well, I'll tell you why, Izuru," she said with a grin, "We are alike, you and I. Both of us bored with the same, stagnant life we find ourselves in."

Izuru stared at her. If they were the same, then why would she bother herself into doing something like this? She knew there was no chance of her taking him on.

"The whole reason I came here tonight, was for you, Izuru," she continued, "I'm here to help you get rid of your boredom, the monotony you find yourself in every. Single. Day."

"There is no way you can do that," Izuru said flatly.

Junko laughed, an evil sound for sure, "That's where you're wrong, mister Ultimate Hope. I'm here to ask for your help, and I'm sure it'll be just the thing to break you out of this situation."

Izuru stood motionless, contemplating the words of this strange girl.

"What do you have in mind?" he asked.

Junko's face split into a smile that would cause even the most hardened criminals to rethink their choices.

"I'm going to plunge this world into despair. And you're going to help me."

"Why despair?"

"'Why despair' he says," she said in between laughter, "Despair is the one thing in the world I can count on to always keep me on my toes. You never know what people are going to react, what they're going to do."

"I doubt that," Izuru said plainly.

"Ooh, but it's true," she said, "Come with me and I'll show you things you'll never see coming. Come help me create a world where nobody knows what will happen next, not even us!"

A world where he didn't know what would happen next. An interesting proposal, far more interesting that whatever inaine tests the scientists want to do.

"I'm listening."


	6. Chapter 6

Part 6

September

Mikan Tsumiki was anxiously sitting in class on the first day after the summer break. She had most of her time helping out at the local hospital, since all of her friends seemed to be busy during the break.

Although she was a bit lonely during the break, Mikan's new confidence in herself had grown to the point where she believed she could start to stand up for herself if somebody was being mean to her. It was thanks to her good friend, Junko, that she had found this new strength.

As she frantically thought over how she would react if said abuse were to occur, she failed to notice Hyoko had entered the classroom along with a very solemn looking Mahiru. It wasn't until she heard the soft voice of Chiaki when she learned of their arrival.

"Mahiru? Are you alright?"

Mikan saw Mahiru shoot Chiaki a glare, before turning away.

"It's none of your business."

Chiaki looked somewhat taken aback, clearly not expecting the almost hostile tone from Mahiru. She mumbled an apology before going to her seat. Mikan, now aware of the rest of the classroom, looked around to see Mahiru with an uncharacteristic scowl drawn on her face along with a girl she had never seen before. The other girl noticed Mikan looking at her and sneered slightly.

"Oh? Do you not recognise me, Pig Shit?"

That was Hiyoko's voice. Mikan stared at the girl in surprise as she put two and two together and that Hiyoko had gone through her growth spurt.

"Oh? Are you jealous? Figures that ugly pig barf like you would be."

"D-don't talk to me like that!" Mikan shouted, surprising herself and everyone else in the room at her sudden outburst.

Hiyoko blinked a couple times as she stared at Mikan, before turning away.

"Whatever."

As Hiyoko went towards her seat, Mikan could only barely hide a smile of happiness. She had done it. She stood up to Hiyoko all by herself.

As the rest of the morning class went by, Mikan could hardly pay attention as she was thinking about when she was going to tell Junko everything she had taught her had payed off. As the break bell rang she rushed downstairs to the school lobby and waited for Junko at their usual meeting spot. After a few painstakingly long moments, Junko arrived.

Mikan rushed up to her.

"J-Junko! I did it! I stood up to Hiyoko!," Mikan excitedly told her, barely taking time to breathe, "It's all thanks to you! I'm so happy you're my friend!"

Junko stared at Mikan as she told her about the events of this morning, before placing a hand on her shoulder to get her to calm down.

"Hold on there, Mikan. I know you want to tell me all about it, but I'm in a bit of a rush right now. Why don't we pick this up after school, okay? I'll meet you out front."

Mikan nodded vigorously as Junko gently sent her on her way. She turned to her left and saw Mukuro standing next to her. As the two began walking back towards their class, Junko smiled at Mukuro.

"It's about time we show our new friend just what despair can do."

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Nekomaru Nidai rubbed his eyes. She was hopeless. Somehow, the girl could not be taught. If Nekomaru hadn't seen her do the most basic of maneuvers, he would be certain she had no idea what volleyball was.

"Hey Nekomaru? You sure this is safe," Akane said, eyeing some of the gymnastic equipment.

Nekomaru grumbled to himself slightly, trying to concentrate on the task at hand: getting Akane ready for the big tournament that was at the end of the month. He had been trying to juggle Akane's practice in with attempting to teach Junko how to play volleyball from scratch, again, for the past few weeks. Ordinarily these tasks would be a breeze, but Junko's inability to improve had made Nekomaru slowly start putting more and more focus on her than Akane, when it should've been equal.

"Hey Nekomaru! Geez, what's with you these days?" Akane shouted at him.

He blinked and glared at her, "What?! I told you, it's fine."

"Are you sure? I need the money from this."

Nekomaru sighed again, "I know. You've been doing great so far, just keep at what we've practiced so far and you'll do fine."

Akane muttered something as she pulled on the rings, testing their strength. They looked sturdy, at least. She nodded to herself as she begun while Nekomaru was still staring off into nothing.

'Is it my fault?' Nekomaru thought to himself, 'Was I too focused on how I thought she should be trained instead of looking for another way?'

Once again Nekomaru had lost himself in thought as he tried to figure out a method of improving Junko's volleyball skills as Akane continued her routine, she had gotten to the balancing part of the practice. After about thirty seconds, a loud snap resonated throughout the gymnasium.

"What the-?'" Akane managed to say before she and the beam crashed to the ground.

"Akane!" Nekomaru shouted as he rushed over to her.

Akane slowly tried to rise to her feet, cradling her left arm.

"I'm fine," she muttered as Nekomaru began inspecting her for injuries.

"This is my fault," Nekomaru said as he gently tapped her legs, checking for bruising or minor fractures, "My mind was in other places instead of checking the equipment."

He moved on to her torso, "As a manager, i've failed you by letting you get hurt under my watch."

"I told you, I'm fi- Shit!," Akane tried saying, before hissing in pain as Nekomaru checked her left arm.

"Judging from your reaction, you're not fine," he said as he began checking her arm more intently.

Akane's arm looked far redder than before, with signs of swelling. Nekomaru shook his head, both at the injury and at his failure.

"I'll take you to the infirmary, it looks like you might have an arm fracture."

"What?!" Akane gaped in disbelief, "I can't have a broken arm, the tournament in at the end of the month!"

Nekomaru shook his head, "If your arm is fractured, i'm afraid you'll have to sit this one out. I can't have you go out and potentially hurt yourself further."

"What am I going to do to get money then, huh? I've got kids to feed!"

"I'll help you figure something out, but for now, let's get your arm looked at properly."

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Junko Enoshima was mustering all of her willpower from pouncing on Mikan right here and now as the two of them walked towards her 'dormitory' room, located in the old school building.

Mikan was busy rambling on something Junko wasn't paying even the slightest attention to as they closed in on the old building. Ordinarily this building would be locked, but Junko had found a way to break in and use it as a base of operations of sorts. The rooms had been soundproofed and everything was set for Mikan.

As the two entered the entrance hall, Junko stopped. Mikan, noticing her friend, ceased walking as well.

"Junko? Is something wrong?"

The time had come. Nobody was around except for Mukuro and Izuru, who were watching from afar unnoticed to Mikan. Junko turned to Mikan.

"Shut up."

Mikan jumped in surprise at Junko's sudden harsh tone.

"W-what?"

"I said shut up you dumb bitch!" Junko yelled angrily, slapping Mikan across the face at the same time.

The slap sent Mikan tumbling to the floor, as she tried to process what was happening, Junko grabbed her from the back of her uniform and begun dragging her across the floor.

"It's always about 'me, me, me'," Junko said in a mock impression of Mikan's voice, "For months I've had to put up with you whining about some dumb dancer chick and when you finally grow a pair to stand up to her what do I get for trying to help you? Oh look at me, I'm Mikan, look how brave I am Junko!" she turned her head and spat in Mikan's scared face, before talking again, "Well I've had enough of this shit. It's time for me to get what I deserve from you."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Mikan cried out as Junko dragged her across the empty building.

Junko pulled Mikan along until she got to a dormitory room, then turned to the terrified Mikan. Her face split into an unnerving smile.

"This looks like a good place. It's soundproof, so we don't need to worry about how loud we are," Junko said gleefully.

"W-what?" Mikan asked nervously.

Junko only continued to smile in response she pulled a strange belt looking thing from somewhere and brandished it menacingly. Mikan stared at it for a moment, trying to grasp what it was. On one end of the belt there was a obvious phallic shape that was almost comically oversized. Mikan's eyes dilated in fear. It was a strap-on.

Mikan shook her head frantically, "Please, Junko, no! Please stop! I'm sorry!"

Junko laughed, "I've been looking forward to this since the moment I first saw you," she turned away from Mikan, "Izuru! Mukuro! Guard the door," she barked into the empty hallway before finally opening the door and dragging Mikan inside.

"Please, no! Please, somebody help me!" Mikan screamed as the door slammed behind her.

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Izuru had been standing outside the dormitory door for about an hour now. He had been idly wondering what Junko was doing to Mikan in there, despite it not taking a genius to figure out she was probably raping her with the strap-on.

Despite knowing what was happening basic level, he had begun wondering more about the finer details of what Junko was doing. She had told him her plan was to destroy her friendship with Mikan in 'the most despairful way possible', but besides suddenly abusing and raping her, what else would there be to do? Mutilating her broken body? Making her commit suicide?

As Izuru mused over the potential events, the door suddenly burst open with Junko flashing Izuru a winning smile.

"Man, that was great!" Junko laughed, "Hey Izuru, go make sure she isn't dead or anything."

"Why?" he asked flatly.

Junko snickered, "You'll find out why soon enough once you go in there."

As Junko walked down the hallway, Mukuro immediately began tailing after her, leaving Izuru once again alone with his thoughts. Just what would he see inside that room? What state would the Mikan girl be in?

Ordinarily Izuru would know, but if what Junko had promised was true, then anything might be possible with the Mikan girl's mental state. With mild excitement growing inside him, Izuru slowly opened the door and walked inside.

The room looked like a bomb had gone off. Blood and signs of fighting were all over the room, and in the center of it all, lying upon the damaged and disheveled bed, lie Mikan.

Mikan was, of course, stripped of all her clothing. Large gouges and bruises were present on her skin, it seemed nearly no part of her body was untouched by the abuse that had taken place. Her vaginal cavity in particular seemed to have taken major punishment. Mikan was lying on her back, so every part of her was exposed, not that Izuru cared. He merely saw her as a piece of the room, something that he would've merely walked by if he had not been told to give her medical assistance.

From the looks of it, Mikan was still unconscious. How that had happened, Izuru did not know or care enough to find out. After a moment of searching the room, Izuru found a basic first aid kit, no doubt left there by Junko for the exact reason he was here.

First order business was tending to the lacerations on Mikan's body. Izuru took out some gauze and disinfectant alcohol and began disinfecting the wounds. Mikan stirred slightly as the stinging was beginning to rouse her. Once all the wounds on her front side were bandaged, Izuru carelessly flipped her over so her back was facing him. The sudden change in positioning, along with landing on still tender wounds, finally awoke Mikan.

"Please," Mikan slurred, "Please no more."

Izuru said nothing as he continued his disinfecting. Mikan, confused at why who she thought was Junko was being so quiet, tried turning her head to see who was moving her.

"Don't move."

Mikan froze. That was a male voice. Immediately assuming that he was going to have his turn with her, Mikan began to try and crawl away.

Izuru placed his hand on her back and pushed her down into the bed, completely immobilizing her from moving.

Mikan began crying. "Please, no more," she sobbed, "I'm sorry, I'll do anything, just stop!"

Izuru initially said nothing, but figured that it would make both of their lives easier if Mikan understood why he was here and cooperate.

"I'm here to treat your wounds," Izuru said, "If you do not want me to, I will leave you here until Junko comes back."

Mikan stopped trying to get away immediately. Junko, who only hours prior had made her feel safe to be around, was now the person she both was afraid of and hated the most. The girl that had robbed her of her dignity, and virginity all while taunting and torturing her.

"No!" Mikan said as loudly as she could, "Please don't leave me here with her!"

"Then stand."

Izuru removed his hand from Mikan's back and stepped away from her as she began to crawl off the bed. After a moment, Mikan had managed to her to her feet and was somewhat trying to cover herself as she faced Izuru.

Izuru plainly glanced at Mikan's face, which was covered in various welts and bruises. The hair that was covering parts of her face had been chopped roughly and unevenly. He noticed the obvious fear in her eyes, which stared right back into his.

Mikan was staring at Izuru. She had never seen anyone like him before, with long black hair and a suit equally as dark. It didn't take her very long to also notice that he was fairly muscular under said suit as well. If she hadn't been in this situation, she might've been more embarrassed that she already was to even be this close to him.

"Turn around," Izuru told her, "I need to finish your shoulders."

Mikan did as she was told and turned her back towards Izuru. After wincing at the stinging of the alcohol, Mikan dared to speak again.

"U-um, thank you for helping me," she stuttered, reverting back into her older manner of speaking, "But why are you here?"

Izuru didn't respond, which frightened Mikan. She began panicking again. Maybe he was only helping her only to destroy her again, just like Junko. She spoke again with obvious distress in her voice.

"A-are you here to hurt me?"

Izuru was silent again, but spoke after a moment.

"No."

Mikan sighed in relief. Sure, he could be lying, but even still, she felt that it was best to trust this stranger rather than go against him.

Mikan said nothing for a short while as Izuru had begun applying bandages. Once he was finished, she turned to face him again. There had been something on her mind since she had woken up and needed to know.

"A-are you here with Junko?" Mikan asked him. She wasn't a fool, she knew that despite this person helping her, it was too convenient that he had just shown up out of the blue to help her after Junko had left.

"Yes."

Mikan's heart sunk. She had a glimmer of hope that this just was her knight in shining armour that would save her, but that was just wishful thinking. She backed away from Izuru as tears began to form in her eyes.

"Then why are you here?!" Mikan asked, both angry and scared, "Why didn't you just leave me here?! To mock me?!" Mikan had begun shouting, "Just to humiliate me further?! I never meant to be rude, so please, just forgive me!"

Mikan glared fire at Izuru, who continued to just stand and look at her. After a continued moment of glaring at him, the fire within Mikan dissipated as she sunk to the floor.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed quietly, "I didn't mean to do anything wrong."

Mikan's sudden change intrigued Izuru. Ordinarily, once someone had an outburst like that, especially after the trauma Mikan had gone through, they would try to fight their way out even if it was useless. But with MIkan, she had seemingly resigned herself to whatever fate she had found herself in.

"I do not plan on harming you, " Izuru said, breaking the silence, "I am merely acquaintances with Junko."

"Then why are you here?"

"To tend to your injuries."

"But why? Couldn't you have just left me?"

"Does it matter?"

Mikan looked up at Izuru. For all intents and purposes, he was someone she should hate for being one of Junko's partners, but for some strange reason, she felt as if she would he safer near him than by herself. Junko was frightening, she had just learned that first hand, but there was something frightening about this person too. The way he and just put pressure on her back with just one hand was proof that she was far stronger than he seemed, and yet, Mikan felt no malice or ill intentions coming from him.

"Why are you?" she finally asked.

"Izuru Kamukura."

Mikan frowned. She didn't know the foundings of Hope's Peak very well, but the name Izuru Kamukura at least sounded familiar to her.

"Well, now that you two have been acquainted with each other, it's time for me to step in!"

Mikan sprang to her feet and rushed behind Izuru, who had turned to face the sudden intruder.

Junko was standing in the doorway, idly smiling.

"Aww, little Mikan's hiding behind her bodyguard."

"What do you want," Mikan growled, hate seeping through her voice in a way that she had never heard before.

"Oh, nothing," Junko said airilly, "For now at least."

"I thought you had left," Izuru said.

"Oh, i did some running around, "Junko said, still smiling, "But i thought it was high time for me to come back and tell the two of you what i need you to do now.

"Why would I listen to you?!" Mikan hissed.

Junko's smile evaporated from her face and she stared blankly at Mikan. "Because if you don't, I won't go easy on you next time, got it, bitch?"

"Eep!" Mikan squeaked as she hid behind Izuru again.

Junko smiled again, "Now, where were we? Oh right, my little plan for the two of you."


End file.
